Reelin' in the Poll: STEELY DAN - ILM Artist poll #50 (voting closed)

i'm gonna go ahead and campaign for some unreleased tracks because these are amazing songs that i'm probably going to vote for:

"This All Too Mobile Home"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq54uBiPJU0

"The Second Arrangement"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FlQRmYaXiE

Not entirely sure it will make my ballot yet, but I want to go to bat for "Here at the Western World", a Royal Scam outtake that's showed up on since of the greatest hits albums.

I mean, I'm sure everybody voting in this poll is gonna have a hard enough time picking 20 steely dan songs out of the ones they already know, but I'm just throwing that one out there

i'm gonna have a massively hard time with this. but it's gonna be satisfying.

my favorite non-album track:

"the mock turtle song":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JCLcCk9P0

My ballot won't be long--10 songs, and I'll probably have to do a bit of relistening to fill out the last two spots--but in terms of how much those eight key songs mean to me, there are very few people I'd rank ahead of them (Neil, the Beatles, a few others). Pretzel Logic is embedded into my distant memories of high school in a huge way.

now we'll see how far the Gaucho love extends.

Wait, people were gonna vote for albums other than Gaucho??

I can't figure!

Excited about this poll!

Not entirely sure it will make my ballot yet, but I want to go to bat for "Here at the Western World", a Royal Scam outtake that's showed up on since of the greatest hits albums.

Yeah, seconded, I love this one.

Greek!

Medallion!

throwing some early support behind Rose Darling, a kinda heartbreaking song that details a narrative in which the meaningless and insipid hours drag, and the precious moments aren’t rightfully yours for the taking.

Oh shit :-) Just had The Original Soundtrack pre-Dan record on this morning. Nothing life changing on that but still quite fun stuff. This should be a great poll - co-sign on Western World, it's fantastic.

wish i'd been to this tour

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1382254_10152685557314972_1175447205_n.jpg

I've put off listening to Everything Must Go for far too long. Now is the time.

i think i listened to that once and it sort of washed over me.

Honestly, I am expecting the same (which is why I've put it off), but I already know every song on the rest of their albums so spending an hour to be complete wouldn't kill me.

Sent!

i'm going to listen to a lot of 'dan this week but i am pretty sure my ballot is just going to read like one of the greatest hits albums

I've put off listening to Everything Must Go for far too long. Now is the time.

― Vinnie,

much much better than Two Against Nature ("Pixaleen"! "Godwhacker"!).

blues beach
i'm frying
sizzling in the merciful rays
and it's the long sad sunday of the early resigned

both everything must go and two against nature are great, do not miss out on voting for "jack of speed" maybe my favorite dan song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IChlag1TSw

really The Royal Scam is the only meh album in their run.

i think their worst pre-break album is easily can't buy a thrill, and it rules

Roxy/Floyd/Dan are the original three streams of alt rock. them getting polled in succession is great. I'm firmly in the Dan camp so HELL YES! to this thing.

Not entirely sure it will make my ballot yet, but I want to go to bat for "Here at the Western World", a Royal Scam outtake that's showed up on since of the greatest hits albums.

― how's life, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 7:01 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Indispensable track, as much so as the only other odd sod, FM.

FM is a given. Probably top 5.

I'd be surprised, but Steely Dan ends with The Royal Scam for me--and only a couple of songs there--so I'm not representative.

Did this band do B-sides that weren't from the albums? I just realized that for how much I love this band, I've heard less than 5 non-album tracks and they're all on the boxset (and "FM" is indeed phenomenal).

the Gaucho outtakes are AMAZING...I love "The Bear" and "Kulee Baba"

"I made better music than those guys in the '70s and still do" - Chevy Chase.

Ha; pulled up the first seven albums in iTunes and chose exactly 20 tracks on my first pass through. Now to put 'em in order. (Only four from Gaucho, btw.)

really The Royal Scam is the only meh album in their run.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 8:07 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

congratulations. this is your haitian divorce.

second only to Aja imo

^^ you're out of the game

welp i've already voted

at first it was surprisingly easy then it became subtly excruciating

Brad, you just came up with the first two lines of your own Dan tune.

lol

"Dallas"

the massive popular appeal of this band eludes me. I like some stuff (nothing post-'74 really) but every time I hear something of theirs on classic rock radio or something I'm like... "really? huge numbers of people are into this glacially paced sad-sack tuneless blah-fest? huh."

who said that?

yeah the Steely Dan B sides thing is weird, same as with Talking Heads. was it just a quirk of the mid-late 70s?

iirc, that was Shakey Mo on the Floyd thread.

xp

♪ no static at all...♪♫ ♩

Agents of the law!

Luckless pedestrian!

Oh shit :-) Just had The Original Soundtrack pre-Dan record on this morning. Nothing life changing on that but still quite fun stuff. This should be a great poll - co-sign on Western World, it's fantastic.

― jamiesummerz, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 9:10 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This record would be perfect on the soundtrack of PT Anderson's upcoming Inherent Vice (Pynchon)

I cannot possibly order this list

though I've been liking PL more now, and it was the underdog for a bit there. Bee Ok's comments make me think there was a PL/CBAT comeback.

there's no consensus here at all which is cool, this poll could be all over the place.

I am totally committed to my #1 choice, but after that, I could have re-ranked them a hundred different ways. Or switched out about 10 songs that I chose for 10 that I didn't.

reading a kate bush biography right now, in an interview she lists Steely Dan as one of her early songwriting influences. glad to see two words of awesomeness connected.

Wow. As I checked out the catalogue, I kept thinking they're the exact mid-point between Kate Bush and The Doors. But I'd never dare say that out loud.

her fave album is Gaucho, a quick google revealed she played Babylon Sisters when she guested on a radio show "I think they're very underestimated. They're the most incredible musicians. This is it. They are here - a musician's band. I mean, all the musicians in this country just rave about them technically, and as songwriters. But you know, they're not really played on the radio, but they're just incredible"

Throw Back The Little Ones seems the most undeniably Bushic, but there are others

this is a band where I wouldn't be surprised to see every album cut from their first 7 get at least one vote, except for maybe East St. Louis toodle-oo.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, March 31, 2014 12:53 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It almost made my ballot, though purely for sentimental reasons. I thought it was really touching that they paid tribute to Ellington (who had just passed away), and I'm hard-pressed to think of any other band that would have/could have done a similar tribute.

That said, a little talk-box goes a long way.

Man, there are some hardcore Dan fans on here. Hope I don't fuck up the art.

Though I was really proud of myself for finding the right image to go along with "Stuck In the Middle With You", so at least there's that.

It almost made my ballot, though purely for sentimental reasons

same here. I grew up in a house without jazz records (well maybe there was a David Sanborn record at one point) but the Dan's "East St Louis" was almost def. the first piece of jazz I ever heard.

but it seems to me there's pretty strong support here for every song on pretzel logic except for the two side-closers

"Monkey In Your Soul" just missed my ballot

^^I rated it very highly.

It made my ballot, too. One of my favorite PL songs.

So cool to hear that Kate Bush is a fan. I was rediscovering SD (and Gaucho especially) at the same time I was first getting into Kate. I even have a playlist that's just Gaucho + The Dreaming because those were the main albums I wanted to listen to all the time.

(xp) i mentioned the two side-closers simply because they were the only two that didn't expressly get love in the thread. i believe that's been cleared up now.

seeing the steve winwood thread revival yesterday reminded me how easily traffic's "the low spark of high heeled boys" could have been a steely dan song circa the royal scam and aja.

Throw Back The Little Ones seems the most undeniably Bushic, but there are others

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Voting is Closed!
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so i'm about to send pplains the final list. he has some work to do on the pictures and i have some last minute stuff to do.

by taking some time, i should be able to have a great rollout. going to start with some subpolls on Wednesday Night. the main rollout will run Thursday starting around 9 AM Pacific Time and run to either Friday Night or Saturday.

thanks for your patience but we are almost there.

oh btw i will sleep, the poll is not going to go for 24 hours straight.

was unable to vote due to, um, surgery but looking forward to recovering with the rollout.

will there be a Spotify?

hope you are oK, rogermexico. get well soon!

yeah ditto!

if noone else does a Spotify playlist i definitely will -- some polls it seems like there's almost a stigma against them, but like w/ Pink Floyd i ended up just making one for my personal use even though i wasn't really posting on the thread

procedure went well, resting comfortably, percocet's not quite cuervo and columbian but all good. xo y'all.

Polled At Last: STEELY DAN - ILM Artist poll #50